• Democratic Republic of Congo: New logging thrust into rainforests
• Nigeria: A milestone verdict against oil flaring
• South Africa: Sappi Saiccor to expand its polluting pulp mill?
• Uganda: BIDCO oil palm plantations at the cost of pristine rainforests in Bugala

LOCAL STRUGGLES AND NEWS

Democratic Republic of Congo: New logging thrust into rainforests

Among other direct and underlying causes of deforestation, Africa's rainforest ecosystems are threatened by logging, as are virtually all of the world's remaining large, contiguous rainforests. These biodiversity rich rainforests provide critical habitat not only to local indigenous but all of the Earth's peoples and species.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo the threat has become a reality. Despite efforts and demands from local groups such as the Alliance of environment, development and indigenous human rights organisations to stop re-zoning plans supported by the World Bank that could open up rainforest areas to logging companies, official information reveals that nearly 150,000 square kilometres of forest has been allocated to timber companies within the last three years, mostly during 2005.

The information was published on November 8th as a list of all logging concession areas in a “Communique de Presse” issued by the Congolese Ministries of the Environment and Finance. The list shows that 103 “concessions” have been handed to logging companies since the May 2002 logging moratorium, covering 147,526 square kilometers.

The opening up of new areas of rainforest for timber felling has been illegal in the Congo since May 2002 established through a “Ministerial Arrêté No CAB/MIN/AF.F-E.T/194/MAS/02 portant suspension de l'octroi des allocations forestières” passed on 14th May 2002.

In December, the World Bank will consider approving a new credit of $90 million to the Congolese government, some of it to finance new forestry activities.

Last July, the well-known singer Sting had declared in a televised programme “G8 Debate: Making Poverty History”: “There's a plan on the table, supported by the World Bank, to go into the Congo. Now the Congo has a population of 50 million people, 35 million of those people live in and depend on the resources of the forest. The plan is to go in there and an area the size of France, 600,000 square kilometres, is going to be opened to international logging companies who will go in there and completely clear cut it --rape it-- and leave the people who live there with absolutely nothing.” “This is not making poverty history, this is poverty in the making. And I'm concerned that no one... no one knows about this, it's just happening under the table,” he said as a member of the panel.

Simon Counsell, Director of the Rainforest Foundation, a world-wide organization which works in tropical rainforest areas with local indigenous peoples and non-governmental organization addressing the underlying causes of the destruction of tropical rainforests, said: “The Rainforest Foundation has been warning for several years that the timber industry in Congo is about to spiral out of control, and that international pressure should be brought to bear on the Congolese authorities to stop the handing out of vast concessions to logging companies. The Congolese government has acted in defiance of its own laws, and is set on a course that could have disastrous consequences for the many millions of people, as well as the wildlife, that are dependent on the country's forests. The World Bank should make it a strict condition of any new funding for forestry in DRC that all the illegally allocated concessions are immediately cancelled.”

Article based on information from: “Africa's Rainforests For The Chop In World's Biggest Illegal Giveaway”, 9th November 2005, Rainforest Foundation, sent by Simon Counsell, E-mail: simonc@rainforestuk.com, “Africa's Massive Illegal Rainforest Giveaway”, Forest Conservation Blog, http://forests.org/blog/2005/11/africas_massive_illegal_rainfo.html; “Sting sounds alarm on carve-up of Congo rainforests during TV debate”, 07/07/2005, The Rainforest Foundation, http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/s-Campaign%20News

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Nigeria: A milestone verdict against oil flaring

Unsustainable production for unsustainable consumption. That’s the case with crude oil, the pillar of industrialization and the so-called modern “growth” advocated by globalised free trade.

It has a huge cost though, that goes on invisible, “externalized” by the macro-economists. But for local communities the cost is far from external. They suffer it in their lungs, their skins, their eyes, their wombs, their daily lives and deaths.

In Nigeria, oil is found in relatively small fragmented pockets at the Niger Delta. The wells from several fields supply a single flow station through a network of pipelines. Major pipelines then transport the oil to refineries or to shipping terminals and are complemented by tank farms and pumping stations along the way. This infrastructure in itself occupies and traverses the land.

Vast tracts of mangrove forests are adversely affected by oil pollution and related developments. Oil spills, which are quite numerous and continue to plague the petroleum industry are a very serious concern in regards to the health of our planet's remaining mangrove forests. The leaked oil permeates the coastal waters and streams, coating the exposed, air breathing roots of the mangroves, making it difficult, if not impossible, for the plants' breathing lenticels to perform their essential functions, thus in effect slowly suffocating the mangroves.

As MAP's director Alfredo Quarto wrote in an edition of Late Friday News and following a visit to underscore the seriousness of oil pollution in Nigeria: “The Niger Delta contains the third largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world. Once rich in biodiversity and teeming with marine life, the area is now being rapidly degraded by petroleum production. The entire region is engulfed in what might be called a Petroleum War --a war fueled by the uncontrolled avarice of the multinational oil conglomerates too long wed to their ubiquitous cronies and mafia-style henchmen in government. During my second week in Nigeria, I was struck down by malaria --wounded in battle, you might say-- another victim in this unholy war against the planet. But the roads to oil riches in Nigeria are lined with countless other victims and environmental refugees, whose very source of life and sustenance is left in abject ruin. Yet, this is a war in which there can be no victors --only victims-- for in the end everyone who is native to this planet stands to lose. Those hundred and more uncontrolled gas flares burning continuously for decades are adding to global warming, eerily lighting the way towards imminent natural disaster, while those multifarious oil spills and pipeline leaks are saturating the land and water ways, until, as one local resident put it, "There are no fish near shore now, the mangroves are dying, our food crops will not grow, our well waters are contaminated, and even our rainwater is no longer safe to drink!"

However, not all is bad news in Nigeria.

On July 2005, the Iwherekan community in Delta State of Nigeria sued Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and the Attorney-General of the Federation of Nigeria, requesting the Federal High Court, Benin Division, to declare that Gas Flaring is illegal, harmful to their health and environment and therefore constitutes a violation of their right to life as guaranteed by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and reinforced by the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

A historic judgment was delivered on November 14. The Federal High Court of Nigeria has ordered the companies to stop gas flaring in the Niger Delta, as it violates guaranteed constitutional rights to life and dignity. Justice C. V. Nwokorie ruled in Benin City that the damaging and wasteful practice of flaring by all the major companies, including ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, TotalFinaElf and Agip, as well as Shell, in joint ventures with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, cannot lawfully continue and must stop since flare gas in the course of their oil exploration and production activities in Iwherekan community is a violation of their fundamental rights to life (including healthy environment) and dignity of human person.

Once again, local resistance has proved an effective way towards changes.

Article based on information from: “Court Declares Gas Flaring Illegal In Nigeria!”, November 14, 2005, ERA Nigeria, http://www.eraction.org; “Whose energy future? Big oil against people in Africa”, Groundwork Report 2005, www.groundwork.org.za; “Why Oil & Mangroves Do Not Mix!”, Mangrove Action Project, http://www.earthisland.org/map/oil.htm

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South Africa: Sappi Saiccor to expand its polluting pulp mill?

South African pulp and paper company Sappi is planning to increase the capacity of its Sappi Saiccor mill by more than 200,000 tons a year. Sappi Saiccor is the largest producer of chemical cellulose (dissolvable pulp) in the world. Its mill at Umkomaas, about 50 kilometres south of Durban Port currently produces about 600,000 tons of chemical cellulose a year. The chemical cellulose is used to produce things like cigarette filters, sweet wrappers, an additive to washing powder that stops dirt sticking to clothes and the stuff that makes vitamin tablets stick together. Almost all of Saiccor's cellulose is exported.

Saiccor (South African Industrial Cellulose Corporation Ltd) started operations in 1955, and was the first mill to produce chemical cellulose from eucalyptus. Sappi bought the company from Courtaulds (a UK chemical company) and South Africa's Industrial Development Corporation in 1988.

Sappi has hired a consulting firm, WSP Environmental, to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment of its proposed expansion. In November 2005, WSP produced a Draft Scoping Report as part of the EIA process. Sappi hopes that construction of the project, which would cost about US$300 million, will start in January 2007 and be finished by October 2008.

Environmental and social NGOs, including TimberWatch, groundWork and the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, are backing local opposition to Sappi's proposed expansion.

In the Draft Scoping Report, WSP states that after the expansion, Saiccor will require an additional 2,200 tons of wood a day. At a public meeting in August, WSP's Vicki King claimed that there will be no expansion of plantations as a result of the expansion. Sappi proposes to meet this demand by diverting timber to the Saiccor mill that it currently sells to wood chip mills. This claim is disingenuous. Saiccor's expansion will increase the overall demand for wood in South Africa. This increased demand will lead to new plantations, even if these are not owned by Sappi.

On 10 November 2005, I took part in a public meeting organised by WSP. I travelled to the meeting with Wally Menne from TimberWatch and Desmond D'Sa from the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance.

When we arrived, WSP's René Abrahams was working her way through a powerpoint presentation. After about two minutes, Menne asked whether we could ask questions during the presentation, or whether we should wait until the end. Shirleigh Strydom, Sappi's hired facilitator, answered that there would be no questions during the presentation, but that Sappi's experts would be available to answer questions one to one after the presentation.

Desmond D'Sa has spent many years opposing Mondi's proposed expansion of its paper mill at Merebank. He has developed a very low tolerance of bullshit. "This is bullshit", he said. "How can this be a public meeting, when the public cannot ask questions in public?"

Strydom had little choice other than to accept this argument. He allowed us to ask questions.

During her presentation, Abrahams showed a slide which indicated that CO2 emissions from Sappi Saiccor were "not measured". Yet she concluded that after the expansion, CO2 emissions were expected to decrease. I was curious to know more about the assumptions underlying this conclusion, particularly as another of Abrahams' slides showed that the numbers of trucks, trains and cars visiting the plant would increase. The number of trucks travelling to and from the site would increase by 35 per cent, for example. I asked whether this additional traffic had been taken into account in WSP's calculations of CO2 and other emissions.

Abrahams' presentation made no mention of the increase in shipping which would be necessary to export the increased output from Saiccor. I asked why these figures had been omitted.

Abrahams answered that the CO2 emission reductions related only to on-site emissions and WSP expected that emissions would be lower because of a reduction in coal burning after the expansion of the mill. She confirmed that WSP's calculations did not take into account any emissions caused by increased traffic or shipping, either in South Africa or internationally.

Strydom, Sappi's facilitator, explained that WSP's Scoping Report was a desk study and if Sappi did not give the figures for CO2 emissions then WSP could not include the figures in their report. Further research would be carried out during the next phase of the Environmental Impact Assessment.

After the presentation, I spoke to Andrew Hall, a Project Manager at Sappi. He told me that Sappi had in fact given the figures for on-site CO2 emissions to WSP. It was WSP's decision not to include the figures in their report, he said.

CO2 emissions may not be the worst problem that Saiccor causes. But, as Desmond D'Sa pointed out during the meeting, the fact that WSP has apparently fudged the results for CO2 emissions in its Draft Scoping Report does not inspire confidence in the rest of the report.

After the meeting, a local resident thanked me for coming to the meeting. She told me of her cough which just wouldn't go away. Her husband had what he called hay fever --all year round. And recently, when she asked her son who works in the fields not far from the Saiccor mill, whether the mill smelled bad that day, he replied that he didn't know. He couldn't smell anything any more.

We left the meeting and drove past the Saiccor mill. A dozen plumes of smoke rose into the evening air. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction, but still the mill stank. Although Sappi and their hired guns, WSP Environmental, claim that the expansion will reduce emissions, they are reluctant to consider Saiccor's record of more than 50 years of pollution. Instead of expanding its operations, Sappi Saiccor should perhaps consider reparations for the damage to livelihoods and health that its operations have already caused.

By Chris Lang, E-mail: http://chrislang.org, www.chrislang.blogspot.com

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The growing trend of establishing plantations of oil palm has taken its toll primarily on tropical forests, where this palm finds enough soil, water and solar energy to fill its needs (see WRM Bulletin 47).

The typical procedure is to log a certain area of forest and then establish the plantation aimed at the production of oil and kernel oil. But it also happens that plantation companies may “clear” the entire forest by setting it on fire –as has been the case with the notorious fires in Indonesia.

Palm oil is indigenous to West Africa, and semi-wild plants have been traditionally harvested in small scale and inter-cropped with food crops by local populations. The present push for oil palm is presented in the usual globalised package: export-driven large scale monocultures that excludes any other scheme. Quite far from diverse nature.

However, in his attempt to get Ugandan people enthusiastic about the business, their President Yoweri Museveni went to say that clearing of forests for the plantation did not pose environmental danger because the palm plantation would be a forest in its own. How could a “green desert” (only one tree crop) be equated with the intertwined diversity of the forest ecosystem?

There is no possible reply on “how” but there are some on “why”.

BIDCO Oil Refineries Ltd., the largest and fastest growing manufacturer of vegetable oils, fats, margarine, soaps and protein concentrates in East and Central Africa is investing in a multi-million dollar oil palm plantation on Bugala islands in Kalangala. The project is planned to cover 26,500 hectares and produce 140,000 tonnes of palm kernel oil. BIDCO counts with investment partners including Archer Daniels Midlands of America, Wilmar Group of Malaysia and Josovina of Singapore. Within the Vegetable Oil Development Project (VODP) scheme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank have granted a $10m loan to support the plantations and supporting infrastructure, while the Government will contribute $12m in the form of land, electricity and roads, and BIDCO will invest $120m.

Several interests coincide around the oil palm business. It is a foreign exchange source for an indebted country like Uganda; a lucrative business for conglomerates which benefit from the massive promotion that leads to reduction of world prices and stimulation of consumption; and a financial service to profit from for the World Bank. Local sources inform that increasingly local elite are also benefiting by providing political clout to secure favourable trade terms with the government and securing business deals such as lucrative outgrower concessions for themselves.

But the project encounters stiff opposition from Members of Parliament. Also some residents of the islands are deeply concerned about the oil palm project which is taking place on one of the only pristine natural large scale rainforests left in Uganda. A beautiful island called Bugala Island with one of the most unique eco-systems in the world. Over 5,500 hectares of rainforest are being destroyed, and the rare grey talking parrot is nesting in the capital city for the first time (180km away by road, 80km straight line) showing that something is wrong.

Large scale oil palm plantations (as well as in other monocultures) are typically related to violation of land rights and other human rights, since they take large areas of indigenous or peasant population’s lands leading to conflicts.

The government is trying to convince the residents of the islands to lease their land to the plantation and “make money” but there are reports of many family conflicts developing because of the project. After loosing their land, where will those people work? Presumably in the oil palm plantations, affected by the widespread use of agrochemicals in oil palm production, in temporary jobs, poorly paid, and in bad conditions as experience in other countries shows. What is certain is that the benefits won’t go for the people but for large enterprises -increasingly foreign- which control production, industrialization and commercialization of palm oil.

No attempt is made to provide space for debate on the matter. This has led to distrust and dismay on the part of the islanders and indigenous land-owners. Maybe now is the time for them to put the pressure on the government to put forward their concerns.

Article based on information from: “BIDCO to undertake largest private Project”, The New Vision 2000-2005, 10th November, 2005, http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/220/464984; “Museveni Launches Bidco”, New Vision (Kampala), November 2, 2005,
http://allafrica.com/stories/200511020416.html, and personal local sources.